Uncategorized
- Anthropology
Cultures of Reason
East Asian and Western cultures may encourage fundamentally different reasoning styles, rather than build on universal processes often deemed necessary for thinking.
- Tech
Building a Supermodel
Researchers are combining ergonomics and biological research with computer power to build a virtual human that can simulate human biology from anatomy down to the genetic code.
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19081
This article seems to ignore the fatal flaw in the search for the virtual person: While such a model is designed to represent all people, it in reality represents no individual. The ergonometric model says that a man is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. I can tell you–as a man 6 […]
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Obesity hormone tackles wound healing
The hormone leptin, which seems to have many roles in the body including regulating fat storage, may speed the healing of wounds.
- Physics
Lasers act on cue in electron billiards
Electrons torn from atoms by a laser beam can shoot back into the atom and knock loose other electrons like balls in a billiard game, a finding that may have applications in nuclear fusion, particle acceleration, and fundamental physics experiments.
- Chemistry
Powerful explosive blasts onto scene
Researchers have synthesized what could be the most powerful nonnuclear explosive known.
- Animals
Butterfly ears suggest a bat influence
Researchers have found the first bat-detecting ear in a butterfly and suggest that the threat of bats triggered the evolution of some moths into butterflies.
- Astronomy
Hubble Space Telescope: Eye wide open
Two months after the failure of a fourth gyroscope shut it down, and 3 weeks after a shuttle crew paid it a service call, the Hubble Space Telescope is back in business.
- Earth
As globe warms, atmosphere keeps its cool
Scientists confirm a confusing discrepancy between temperatures at Earth's surface and in its atmosphere.
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19080
This article fails to point out interesting aspects of the land and ocean temperature data shown in the article. During the period from about 1918 until 1943, land and ocean temperatures rose at a rate of about 18C per millennium. From 1943 until about 1975, the temperature was constant or declined slightly. A period of […]
- Health & Medicine
Oxygen limits infections from surgery
Giving patients extra oxygen during and shortly after colorectal surgery halves the incidence of infection.
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19079
It’s always risky to assert that a particular study has never been conducted. The research may have been done and, worse, the researcher may come across the assertion. This article claims, “Long-term studies of tough boys have yet to be conducted.” In 1987, we reported a 9-year follow-up of 25 boys (Contributions to Human Development […]
